A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804

Laurent Dubois's A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804 is excellent reading for those curious minds who would like to learn more about Guadeloupe during the French and Haitian Revolutions. Like Saint Domingue, the slaves and free people of color exhibited agency, shaped the outcome of events in the Caribbean and the metropole, and asserted a universalist notion of rights in the language of the French Revolution. Moreover, the administration of Victor Hugues offers many parallels with that of Sonthonax, Toussaint Louverture, and Rigaud in Saint Domingue, governments that defended emancipation while endeavoring to restrict the ex-slaves to the plantation. For anyone interested in Saint Domingue and the Haitian Revolution, Dubois's work places it in a broader context of the Caribbean.